A Texas Politics Project/Texas Tribune poll of Texas voters has Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker near the head of the early GOP Presidential field. Walker polls at 19% – in a statistical tie with Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz. Ex-Gov. Rick Perry is stalled at 8%. And in a remarkable turn of sanity for the GOP, the former half-term Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is at 3%.
Using a website called Nukemap, the Houston Chronicle has simulated what would happen if a nuclear device were detonated over Houston. My best guess – We’d all be dead.
From the Annals of the Revolution – In 1836, Col. William B. Travis issued a call for help on behalf of the Texian defenders of the Alamo. The troops in the crumbling mission turned fort included regular Texas Army soldiers and a variety of volunteers with Davy Crockett being the most famous.
Travis was in command of troops in the recently captured city of San Antonio de Bexar. His military capability has been much debated. His troops were surprised by the arrival of the leading forces of the army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana on February 23 even though they had been marching from Mexico for over a month. Travis and his troops took shelter in the Alamo, where they were joined by a volunteer force led by Col. James Bowie.
The mission was quickly surrounded by Santa Ana’s 5,000 troops. When Santa Ana called for Travis and his men to surrender, they answered with a bold shot from one of the Alamo’s cannon. Furious, Santa Ana began a 13 day siege. Travis recognized his predicament and sent out several messages via couriers asking for reinforcements. Addressing one of the pleas to “The People of Texas and All Americans in the World,” Travis stated that the Alamo was surrounded by more than a thousand Mexican troops and that it had sustained 24 hours of bombardment without loss of life. He proclaimed “I shall never retreat or surrender” and signed off with the now-famous “Victory or Death” knowing that it almost certainly would be death. Only 32 valiant men from the nearby town of Gonzales responded to Travis’ call for help slipping through a gap in the Mexican lines that Santa Ana had purposefully left open hoping to lure more Texians to an almost certain tragic fate.
Much of North Central Texas including most of the Fort Worth-Dallas area was iced over Monday morning by a thundersleet storm that left as much as 2 inches of ice on area roads. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that conditions are not likely to improve for at least 2 more days.
Photo of a deserted downtown Fort Worth from the Star-Telegram.
UH Board of Regents Chairman Tilman Fertitta thinks UH should be playing with the big boys in the Big 12. Fertitta is apparently willing to play any card to make that happen. According to the Houston Chronicle, the Chairman has suggested the Legislature engage in strong-arm tactics to achieve his goal.
“Put pressure on the presidents;, say, ‘If you don’t do this, we’re not going to fund you for this,'” Fertitta said in a meeting with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board Thursday. “It’s just the way it is. That’s the way to do it.” Fertitta said it’s “an embarrassment” that the namesake university of the fourth largest city in the United States has not been welcomed into the conference.
The only embarrassment has been the overall performance of UH athletic teams in recent years – highlighted by the season-opening loss to the UTSA Roadrunners in the inaugural game at troubled TDECU Stadium. UH lost that game badly to a football program that has been in existence for all of 5 years and does not play in anything resembling a major conference. And Fertitta’s wish does not appear likely to come true as the Big 12 has repeatedly stated that it is not interested in expanding right now. Fertitta also overlooks the fact that only two schools in the Big 12 – UT and Tech – receive state funding. The Legislature can’t put the screws to the other 8 members of the conference.
Prairie View A&M Quarterback Jerry Lovelocke has all the physical attributes of an NFL quarterback. Right now he is projected to be a possible 7th round pick Lovelocke is a 6-foot-5, 200-pound four-year starter who passed for 39 touchdowns and 18 interceptions over the past two seasons. He also rushed for 19 touchdowns during that span. Some team needs to take a flyer on this guy. He played in a pro-style offense and is a smart kid with a good arm. A project – but perhaps a very worthwhile project. Can he be worse than Johnny Football?
From the Annals of Valor – In 1945, the Marines raised the US Flag on top of Mount Suribachi, a 550 foot-high extinct volcano at the southern end of Iwo Jima. The Marines of Company E, Second Battalion, 28th Marines had fought their way to the top for three days. They first planted a small flag to signal the victory to other units on the island. They later raised a larger flag. This act was caught in perhaps the most indelible image from the Pacific War. The Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal shows six men raising the flag on Mount Surbachi. Harlon Block of Weslaco was the Marine guiding the base of the flagpole into the volcanic ash. Block never saw the famous picture. He was killed in action a week later as his unit advanced in the direction of Mishi Ridge. Block was buried in the Fifth Marine Division cemetery at the foot of Mount Suribachi. He was brought home for burial in Weslaco in 1949.
Newly elected Sen. Konni Burton (TP-Crazyville) desperately wants to become the Ted Cruz of the Texas Senate. To advance that claim, Burton announced she will ban public-sector lobbyists from her office. If Burton follows her policy she will exclude representatives of municipalities, counties, school districts, public universities, river authorities, and water districts. Burton will exclude representatives of the areas she allegedly serves. Any person officially representing citizens in Fort Worth, Arlington, or a local school district will not be allowed into her office to advocate or inform Burton on issues that could help or hurt the her constituents. This unusual policy did not prevent Burton from accepting campaign contributions from some of the now-banned lobbyists. It would be one thing if Burton’s lobbyist ban was universal, but of course it is not, because Burton will still welcome lobbyists representing private corporations or special interest groups. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (not exactly a liberal rag) is not amused.
Burton says lobbyists “very well could be pushing policy that is in direct conflict with the will of the people.” She shouldn’t make that judgment before she knows what they want to talk about. Elected officials in her district hire lobbyists to push specific policies, presumably ones they believe represent “the will of the people.” She can make lobbyists tell her what they want to discuss and decide case by case which she wants to hear. To reject them all without consideration is a disservice to the people back home, and it’s not smart.
From the Annals of Reconstruction – In 1874, the Texas Senate confirmed the election of former slave Walter Moses Burton. Burton was 21 when he was brought to Texas in 1850 as the slave of Thomas Burke Burton, a Fort Bend farmer. His owner taught Burton how to read and write, skills which Burton put to great effect. After emancipation, Burton became one of the wealthiest and most influential blacks in Fort Bend County. In 1869, Burton was elected sheriff and tax collector of Fort Bend County. In 1873 Burton was elected to the Texas Senate, where he served for seven years over two terms. In the Senate he championed the education of blacks and is perhaps best remembered for the bill that established Prairie View Normal School (now Prairie View A&M University). When he left the Senate in 1882, Burton was given an ebony and gold cane as a tribute. He remained active in state and local politics until his death in 1913.
Jeb Bush claims to be “his own man.” A look at his foreign policy advisors reveals that he appears to be nothing more than a retread of brother George W. who led perhaps the most incompetent foreign policy team in U.S. history. “Jeb’s Team” includes discredited figures such as Paul “I’ve Been Wrong About Almost Everything” Wolfowitz and John “Death Squad” Negroponte. The Washington Post has prepared a Venn diagram which illustrates Jeb’s almost complete lack of independence from the Bush family legacy of foreign policy failure. How did Don Rumsfeld get left out?
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